ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Multielement Determination in Gum Opium by Microwave Digestion and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy

R. K. Sarin, S. Srivastava, A. K. Srivastava, G. Anil, and M. R. P. Reddy

Central Forensic Science Laboratory, BPR&D, MHA, GOI, Ramanthapur, Hyderabad-500 013, India

E-mail: sarinrk2000@yahoo.com

Received: 30 August 2002

Abstract: Inductively Coupled Plasma—Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was used for multielement analysis in Indian gum opium. All elements including rare earths were scanned using image software and only 13 elements were found to be in quantifiable levels (Ca, Fe, Mg, Al, Si, Mn, Zn, Ni, Cu, Ti, Co, Sr, and Ba). The sample was dissolved completely in closed microwave digestion system using only nitric acid. The ICP-OES/microwave digestion method was found to be fast, accurate, and reliable. The present study was undertaken for the development of multielement determination method for gum opium samples, for screening a large set of samples and creating of a database of elements in Indian gum opium to be used for geographical source correspondence. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the developed analytical method, a recovery study was also undertaken and the recovery was found to be in the range of 97—103 % except silicon where the recovery was in the range of 85—86 %.

Full paper in Portable Document Format: 582a101.pdf

Chemical Papers 58 (2) 101–103 (2004)